Hennassia (Henna + Cassia)

Some two weeks ago, I decided to give up on growing out my natural hair color (mousy dark blonde) and ... oops I hennaed again!

Well, it was no oops; it was a carefully planned and carried out venture and this time around it was not just henna that I used.

In fact, it was exactly 66% cassia (200g) and 33% henna (100g) mixed with two big lemons' worth of juice (yes, fresh-squeezed) a lot of camomile tea (used for dilution to reach the yogurt consistency) and about a tablespoon worth of olive oil.  The olive oil and some of the chamomile tea was added after I let the cassia/henna/lemon juice/camomile tea mixture sit over night for about 12 hours in total wrapped in a plastic bag with some holes cut through it.  After I applied the mud, I let it sit on my hair for cca 2 hours.

The color that resulted was much more coppery (read orange) than full-on henna, which results in a much deeper red.  It did turn a little more deep coppery and 'saturated' than I expected, but now I'm quite content and even happy about the final result.

After I'm done using up the rest of the mixture for root touch-ups (I had some left overs that I placed in the freezer as it would be crying shame to waste it), I'm planning to use a 75% cassia and 25% henna mixture as that should give me more of a strawberry blonde look - less saturation and all.

Here is a picture that I took circa 24 hours after coloring:

About a week after I colored my hair (some of the darker tones are due to previously colored hair, the light tones in my ends are probably due to wear and tear + previous honey lightening treatments):

All in all, I am very happy about my 'hennassia' or rather 'cassienna'.  The conditioning effects are undeniable - visible and tangible: shinier, softer, thicker (looking) hair and ends that do not look like they need an asap trim.  I just love henna and now cassia too.

|| Sssschka